Ex-UCP board member says he resigned due to party bullying over Kenney leadership race probe

United Conservative Party leadership candidates from left; Jason Kenney, Doug Schweitzer, Brian Jean, and Jeff Callaway take part in a leadership debate at the Mount Royal Conservatory's Bella Concert Hall in Calgary on Wednesday September 20, 2017. Gavin Young/Postmedia

A former UCP riding board member said he quit after being bullied by party colleagues due to his co-operation with an investigation into Leader Jason Kenney’s leadership campaign.

Mark Hudson, who stepped down from the UCP Livingstone-Macleod constituency association last week, said the contention by Kenney and party MLA Jason Nixon that he left because of dissatisfaction over the nomination of candidate Roger Reid is misleading.

“Kenny’s and Nixon’s comments, which alluded to “disgruntled members” unhappy with the nomination process, was ignorant, divisive and unfounded,” Hudson stated in a letter he emailed Wednesday.

Reid’s nomination, he added, was conducted fairly and the party’s top brass apparently have confused that contest with a controversial one next door in the Highwood riding.

“I can assure you none of us left for that reason,” said Hudson.

Hudson said he could no longer remain the Livingstone-Macleod constituency association’s vice-president of fundraising and events because he’s been “tormented” by other riding board members after he leaked evidence of wrongdoing in the so-called “kamikaze” campaign that allegedly aided Kenney’s effort in securing the UCP leadership.

“While the vast majority of the CA board has been supportive of me, I cannot continue given the increasing gravity of the Election Commissioner’s investigation, for I feel the bullying would simply worsen,” he stated.

“Over the last year, I had made attempts to convey the problem, calling for action from the Executive Director of the UCP party, but all was in vain.”

Hudson is one of six people to exit the 30-member riding board just ahead of a provincial election.

Party operative Jeff Callaway has been accused of running a “kamikaze campaign” during the party’s 2017 leadership race to undermine Kenney’s main rival, one-time Wildrose party leader Brian Jean.

It’s also alleged Callaway’s effort was funded by Kenney loyalists, who paid individuals to contribute to it.

While it’s being investigated by the province’s elections commissioner, Kenney and the UCP have denied the accusations.

Hudson said after becoming concerned over behind-the-scenes UCP conduct, he taped party organizer Wendy Adam in August 2017 detailing how Callaway would act as a stalking horse candidate for Kenney, “and everything happened in the plan she outlined.”

When it became clear at a board meeting last January what Hudson had done and was co-operating with the investigation into Callaway’s campaign, he was assailed by some members, said Mark Dyrholm, who also left the group.

“I had to defend him against the board bullying . . . I couldn’t stay there while he was being bullied,” said Dyrholm, adding he was also disappointed with candidate Reid’s failure to handle the situation.

“(Hudson) has to co-operate with the investigation, anyone who’s bullying him does a disservice to democracy.”

Even so, Dyrholm said he’s still committed to ensuring “the socialists are gone because I want a conservative-type government.”

Maureen Moncrieff, who resigned her post as board president, was quoted by High River Online last week that she left due to the lack of a promised grassroots approach by the UCP.

At an unrelated news conference at a southwest Calgary laundromat on Wednesday, Kenney dismissed Hudson’s accusations, calling them sour grapes over Reid’s nomination.

“When three or four people who are affiliated with a losing nomination campaign resign from the board, I can’t understand how that constitutes a week’s worth of news,” he said.

“We are talking about a fraction of a fraction of all 2,000 volunteers who sit on UCP boards.”

Kenney said he’s been told by Reid and others in the riding that the resignations were sour grapes over the riding’s candidate.

As for allegations his campaign conspired with Callaway during the leadership race, Kenney reiterated that he has no knowledge of it.

“I won’t and can’t respond to what another leadership campaign is alleged to have done,” he said.

Hudson, though, was adamant in his accusations, saying the party’s refusal to address the issue is deeply disappointing.

“It is unfortunate that the UCP, which Kenney promised to be grassroots-driven and focused on eradicating entitlement, corruption and top-down rule, has ultimately fallen to this,” he said.

In a news release, the NDP raised the question of the UCP trying to muzzle witnesses involved in investigations of its party members.

“Jason Kenney needs to commit the UCP to co-operating with Election Commissioner and to take steps to stop the bullying or silencing of potential witnesses,” said a party news release.

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